The B.C. court decision requiring notary public Tony Liu to pay his client more than $600,000 for because Liu failing to determine whether the Vancouver house his client was buying for $5.5 million had been owned by a tax resident of Canada.

As a result, the Canada Revenue Agency did not get paid, at the time of the sale, the 25 per cent capital gains tax it charges non-resident sellers of Canadian property on any profit they make on the sale.

When the CRA later demanded the buyer to pay the $600,000 in taxm, the buyer, in turn, sued Liu, arguing Liu failed to discover the seller was not a tax resident of Canada.

Vancouver: Superstar city or just a safe haven for global investors?

Vancouver is seen as a safe haven for global investors, a 'hedge city' to buy a home or condo to protect against business upheaval at home.

"There are a collection of cities around the world that offer that level of certainty." The New Yorker magazine compared Vancouver's sky-high real estate prices to so-called 'superstar cities' in the U.S. such as New York and San Francisco, where prices continue to climb at a steadier and steeper rate than other less-fortunate cities. View Vancouver West detached homes for sale.